Thursday, May 21, 2020

Enemies of the truth

Ray Comfort does this clever shtick where he gets people to admit their past includes some form of lying, stealing, using God's name in vain, lusting after someone who is not his or her spouse, so then he tells them, "You've just admitted you're a lying, thieving, blasphemous adulterer at heart."

Trickery aside, Comfort has a point to make regarding subjective interpretations of objective concepts.

One thing that I have had a hard time letting go of is not just how the MSM (mainstream media) lies to us about all kinds of things, but more disappointingly, how so many of us repeat these deceptions to each other as though they were facts. I've expressed negative opinions regarding people like AOC, Nancy Pelosi, Adam Schiff and Hillary Clinton at times, despite never having met any of them.

This web site is devoted to listing lies by all the mainstream media, not just right or left:

I have friends and family members who look at the world differently than I do, and that's fine. They must certainly look at me and wonder why I think as I do. But there is something about the willingness to parrot gossip that agitates me to no end.

I gave it more thought, did some more reading, and came to this conclusion, which was also expressed by someone on Reddit:

"If you allow lies to be spread against someone you don't like, then you are an enemy of the truth."

I get that there are people in the public square each of us could do without. Who these people are most likely depends on how we view the world.

But if one is completely honest with one's self, there's no escaping the fact that if we believe and repeat lies about others, we are committing false witness, and are punishable under the Law.

Am I a Trump fan? I don't know what that's supposed to mean, as I support Trump's political platform of prosperity and security, I could do without his combative nature on some occasions but sometimes I think his abrasiveness is justified, I enjoy his rally speeches because they're often funny, and I think it would be ungrateful of me to ignore all the good things he's done for the US while in office.

Does Trump tell the truth about everything? Probably not, because no one does, politician or not.

When we applaud slander, we support the destruction of another human being's reputation. When we allow others to slander, we are complicit in our silence. For those reasons, it's nearly intolerable to watch media commentary disguised as reporting anymore.

Should the merciless obtain mercy? Should the unforgiving obtain forgiveness?